The syncopated birthday dinner
by Olego
Summary: The whole Walker family is gathering for some drama.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: The syncopated birthday dinner

**Author**: Olego

**Rating**: G

**Disclaimer**: Don't own a thang.

**Summary**: Kevin is the kind of guy who likes control – so he googles people to get ahead.

_Saturday_

Nora hurried into her house, carrying two full grocery bags. She barley made it inside and she was definately not in the best mood. Not only was she late for tonight's preparations, but she had also had a big argument with Sarah about Ojai. Again, Sarah refused to work with Holly and Tommy, once again jeopardizing the whole company. This time, more was at stake than just the company, but little did Nora know about that.

Sarah almost threw the yogurt and bread on the table in front of her children. She was mad our of her mind. Not only was Holly trying to take over Ojai, Tommy was god damn supporting it! Then, to top it all off, her own mother had actually agreed with Holly. "Eat quick, we have to get ready to get to grandma's."

Tommy came home to find Julia and Lizzie on the floor of the living room, both covered in toys. "You're not ready yet? We have to leave for mom's." Julia didn't seem to be in a hurry. Tommy sighed loudly and went to take a quick shower, wishing he could spend all night locked in the bathroom, to get away from her stubborn sister and her senseless mind.

Holly was standing in front of her over-sized mirror, looking at herself wearing a blue dress. A party at the Walker house was not what she needed after today, but she had promised she'd be there. The blue dress was a tad too short, and everyone would notice. Holly took it off, threw it on the pile of ten other dresses she'd tried on and brought out a longer black dress with a higher neck.

Robert was sitting by his desk, reading a boring enough report. Kitty walked in to find him with his feet on the desk, buried in the papers. They'd had a huge fight for several days, about something so tiny neither of them even remembered anymore. Kitty knew it, but she had decided it was not her turn to end it. "Don't forget mom's tonight. Eight o'clock sharp." Robert mumbled a respons, not even looking up.

Saul was still at the office, knowing he shouldn't be. He didn't have to. He should take the afternoon off, but honestly, he had no where to go. His phone rang. "Hi Kevin… I remember… I'll be there… See you then." Saul put down the phone and sighed deeply. What if tonight should be the night?

Justin knew he'd be late for the party tonight. It was two PM and he still hadn't made it out of bed. It wasn't even his bed. Rebecca had left him there for lunch with some friend. Justin had migraine that would make some of his hangover's jealous and his leg was aching. He had good hope for the party though. Maybe this would be the first time the family could be assembled without any drama. He didn't realize how naïve that was.


	2. Chapter 2

Nora was cooking for 14. She was used to it, and she really enjoyed it. But for some reason this time was different. Saucepans and frying pans were all over the kitchen, simmering and boiling like never before. Nora was constantly on her feet, fixing every detail of tonights dinner with grace and precision.

She heard the door open and close. A quick glance on the clock revealed that it was half and hour before dinner time, meaning it could only be Rebecca arriving now. Nora knew her kids.

"Hi Nora." The soft voice was obvilously in a good mood. Nora immediately put a bowl in front o Rebecca and a whisk in her hand, no greetings needed.

"How was your day?" Nora squeezed in the question while running out into the pentry to collect some ingredients.

"Good. Kind of weird. My mom has been working over like every night the last month, and now she's been home for two days, not really telling me why." Rebecca whisked as she spoke, not sure if Nora wanted to know about the whereabouts of her late husband's mistress.

Nora stopped to look up.

"Maybe something is bothering her. It's hard when you don't have anyone to talk to." Nora continued with her cooking. "You should talk to her, see if she needs you. Everyone needs a friend, no matter if they treated you wrong."

Rebecca, so flabbergasted, didn't know how to say anything but "Yeah…".

Julia was adjusting her green dress while balancing Elizabeth on her arm. She and Tommy had just pulled up at Nora's house, and Julia was expecting they were the first ones there. She had attended enough Walker sibling get-togethers to know their flaws when it came to coming on time. Except for Kevin, of course, who was always on time, always stressed and always pissed if someone had wasted his time by being late.

Tommy was already walking up to the house.

"Wait up" Julia moved towards him, carrying her daughter. "don't walk away from me." Tommy had been absent the whole ride over.

"Sorry. You want me to take her?" Julia shot him an angry look, walked past him and into the Walker residence entrence.

Kitty and Robert arrived when Rebecca was greeting Tommy and Julia. The tension between the couples them could be cut with a knife, and Rebecca retracted into the kitchen, to avoid getting caught in the middle of something. Julia and Kitty chatted on about Lizzie, leaving Tommy and Robert uncomfortably quiet.

Just as Julia and Kitty left to help in the kitchen and setting the table in the dining room, Jusin entered the house. Nora greeted the crowd in the entrance, making sure everyone had a task for tonight.

Sarah arrived with her kids to find almost whole her family cooking and decorating the house with an endless amount of glittery stuff. Paige and Cooper were quickly recruited by Justin to help putting a gigantic HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign opposite to the door.

Sarah walked into the dining room and found Tommy there, folding napkins. Not well, but still helping, away from people.

"Hi." Sarah greeted her brother. Tommy knew it was a peace offering, at least for tonight, and he knew he had to reach out.

"Hi. I think we need to sort out what happened today."

"Today? No, Tommy, we don't. You have to sort out what's happened the last weeks, and you need to be quick." Sarah snapped back at her brother. They didn't have time to finish until the doorbell rang.

Everyone in the house ran to the door, lining up with big smiles. When the door didn't open Nora quietly went up to the door, slowly opened it, taking a deep breath, ready to shout.

"Saul?!"

The smiles disappeared quickly and the crowed scattered.

"We thought you were…" Nora started to explain as she saw a car pull up behind Saul's shoulder.

"They're here!" she screamed from the top of her lungs, and everyone were soon back in the line. Nora saw how ridicolous they all looked on a perfect line and with big smiles. She swallowed her laughter and backed away from the door.

"Kevin, this is making me really uncomfortable."

"I know sweetie, but I couldn't stop them. You know how my family behaves when they see the opportunity to party." Kevin put his hand on the back of Scotty's back, as if to protect him, and to stop him from running back to the car.

"Let's just get it done with. How bad could it be? Had there been any new drama, I would've known." Scotty knew that his husband's words should calm him, but they didn't.

Kevin and Scotty both put on big smiles as Kevin opened the door.

"SURPRISE!!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Congratulations." Justin whispered to Scotty as they hugged.

It had been quite the hug party since Kevin and Scotty walked into the house, but Scotty couldn't help but just like it. All these people there for his birthday. He knew he was family now, but it was things like this that proved it.

"Where's Holly?" Nora asked into the crowed, aiming her question mainly to Tommy and Rebecca. Tommy seemed to leave for the bathroom at the same time, and Rebecca lifted her shoulders as she didn't know what was keeping her mother.

"All right, dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes, be good." Nora exclaimed to the cheerful bunch spreading out in the house.

Kevin and Scotty were left in the hallway when everyone left.

"You 'kay?" Kevin asked as he put his hand on the small of Scotty's back.

"You know it." Scotty kissed Kevin briefly on the mouth before they joined the family.

It was right before everyone would sit down to eat when the doorbell rang. Rebecca went to fetch her mother who entered in a, in Nora's opinion, extremly slutty dress.

"Hello everyone. Holly approached Nora with a big bouquet of flowers. "To the hostess" and a wrapped square box to Scotty. "I hope you like it." Scotty answered politely and put the gift with all the others. Apparently, gift opening was just as embarrassing as the toast at birthdays – you also have to open everything in front of the entire clan to show how much you like their presents.

Nora raised her glass five minutes into dinner. Everyone around the table got quiet and lifted the glasses as well. All except for Scotty, that is.

"Scotty. This is your first of many birthdays with us, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. I can't imagine someone better to come into this family and I can't imagine how our family get togethers used to look like without you." Scotty almosed teared up when Nora finished with a broad smile.

"Scotty. You challenge not only me and my beliefs – but also my taste in food." Scotty smiled at Robert as he was surprised to see him chip in as the second toaster.

Sarah couldn't keep quiet any longer. "Scotty. I love every man who makes Kevin sing karaoke." Kevin shot his sister a dirty look, but defrosted when he heard Scotty chuckle next to him.

"What can I say bro? Welcome!" Justin was short and concise, and Tommy jumped in "Yeah, you're like the brother I never had."

The whole table laughed and got back to eating.

"So Holly, how's it going with the wine?" The question was merly polite, but who knew it would be the root to all the drama?

"It's going really well, actually. We have this brand new grape that we're going to try out."

"Oh really? Hard to stick to what we already have?"

"Sarah!" Nora called out.

"No, Nora, it's okay. I know you're mad Sarah, but can we handle this in the office? We're here for Scotty."

Scotty's face showed how much Scotty wanted to be somewhere else, and if Kevin would've been able to kill with his looks, the dining room would be a battle field by now.

"Speaking of wine," Saul continued, as if the akwardness never happened, "this is rather nice." He held up his glass with deep red liquid. Many of the in-laws around the table were quick to agree with him, anxious to move the conversation along.

"Kitty." Kitty looked up at the mention of her name. "How is it going with your process?" Julia asked.

"Ehm… we haven't had the time to look in to it the past couple of days."

"I can get you a great attourney to help you move along the procedure" Kevin offered.

"It's okay, we're already in contact with one." Robert responded.

"Who?"

"Hannah Woods."

Kevin didn't reply, but lifted his eyebrows in a not-impressed mode.

"Would anyone like some refills?" Nora was quickly on her feet to refill soda and wine around the table.

When she was pouring Holly wine Sarah couldn't hold it in.

"I can't believe you dare to show up here, after what you've done."

The whole room silenced. Everyone stopped eating. The eyes were on Holly.

"Sarah, I don't think this is any of your business."

"Not my business?" Sarah hissed and got up. "You have deliberately tried to ruin this family for over twenty years – and it's none of my business?"

Tommy and Justin who were on the sides of Sarah got up to make her calm down and sit.

At the touch of Tommy Sarah jumped.

"And you! How fucked up can someone be?"

"Sarah – the kids!" Nora's point was missed as Sarah continued.

"Since your brothers helped you start a family you have only been fucking things up more and more." Now also Julia got up to her husband's defence.

"Sarah, calm down. We're working it out. It's cool."

"No, Julia, it's not cool." Sarah almost whispered as she sat down. She looked at Tommy in silence. "You have to figure this out." She then locked eyes with Holly.

"I think I'm going to leave." Holly collected her things.

"I'll see you out." Rebecca and Holly left for the door.

The room was in silence for a while.

"What is the deal?" Sarah looked at Kevin who asked the question. She then shifted to look at Tommy. Neither spoke. Kevin continued. "You all just ruined my husband's birthday dinner, you owe us that much. Spill."

Rebecca got back. "I'm gonna get some ice cream. Paige, Cooper, you want some?" Both kids got up to follow Rebecca to the kitchen. Before leaving the room, Rebecca turned to the bunch around the table. "Mom told me. I'll take care of the kids, and let you talk."

"I… I shouldn't tell like this." Tommy turned to Julia. "I love you. It was a mistake. We…" Tommy looked incredibly hurt and left the room in panic. Julia followed him.

"What in heaven's name is going on?" Suddenly Nora's voice was very powerful, and it was obvious she wasn't gonna take any more implication, it was time for the truth.

Sarah broke the silence. "I shouldn't be the one to tell you. Tommy and Holly…" Sarah's voice trailed off as Tommy entered the room.

"We slept together."

_To be continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

The room was silent. Everyone looked chocked, not knowing how to proceed.

Kitty was the one to break the silence.

"Tommy. I can't in words tell you how extremely ashamed I am of you. How you can do this to Julia, to Lizzie?" Kitty spoke quietly and slowly, weighing every word carefully. She knew, as well as everyone, exactly how bad this was for all of them. She was also aware that Tommy knew, but they still needed to sort it out as a family.

Justin was slowly shaking his head, like he couldn't believe what he just heard. "Bro. This is not cool. I…"

"I'm sorry. I know you all hate me for this, and you should. I hate me for this. It wasn't suppose to happen, but it did." Tommy covered his face with his hands.

"Well, I know I didn't come here for this, and frankly, it's more than I can handle. See you all later." Saul got up. When passing Sarah he quickly stopped to put a hand on her shoulder. He squeezed it gently. When passing his sister he did the same.

The room was again quiet and they could all hear the door close when Saul left.

Nora had the whole time been so quiet. She looked sad more than chocked. "Okay. Here's what we do. Tommy, go see Julia." She nodded towards her oldest son as she looked up at her looking like a puppy receiving instructions from his master.

"Sarah – I realize I was unfair to you before when we discussed Ojai. I'm sorry." Sarah had a surrendered smile on her face. "You should take your kids and go home. They don't need more of this."

Sarah immediately objected. "But mu-um!"

"No, Sarah! I know this will change a lot for you when it comes to Ojai, but it's Saturday night, we're not in the office and for heaven's sake – it's Scotty's birthday."

Everyone turned their eyes to Scotty, starting to apologize. Scotty waved his hand at them. "It's okay. It's kind of amusing when you consider the irony of what happened the first time I participated in one of your dinner parties."

Kevin put his hand on Scotty's arm.

"It's definitely not okay. Tommy – I did not help you start a family for you to destroy everything in a twinkling."

Tommy barley let Kevin finish. "I know! As I said, I hate myself for this. It just happened once, and I was emotionally… I don't know, worn out."

"We do not need to hear this Tommy. Now leave." Nora made it clear she was not going to take no for an answer.

When Tommy left the room, Rebecca met him in the hallway. They both stopped.

"I'm sorry Rebecca, you don't deserve this."

"No, I don't, but who's surprised? My mom is a false and promiscuous liar, who apparently has a thing for the men in this family." Rebecca shrugged. "And who am I to talk? I date Justin, because I'm so desperate to find a guy or a Walker or whatever, that I'll date the guy who is almost my brother!" Rebecca's voice was unstable and shaken.

Tommy put his hand on her shoulder, as if he was going to embrace her in a hug but didn't really dare to. They stood there for a few seconds, before Tommy exhaled heavily and took away his hand.

He whispered a soft "Sorry" to her before leaving the house.

When Tommy had left the room, Nora quickly started instructing her kids on how to proceed.

"Kevin, I'm so sorry about this. I know you wanted a nice family gathering for this day, and surly we can all agree that's not happening. I suggest you bring all of Scotty's presents with you home and finish the day with only each other."

Nora stopped briefly to catch her breath. She then continued.

"Sarah, as I said, you should take your kids home. Of course there must be changes in how Ojai and Walker Landing work, but this is not the time, nor the place. I suggest you all take a day and let this rest, and try to keep it professional on a meeting Monday morning."

Suddenly Rebecca appeared in the doorway. Her eyes were swollen and her lower lip was shaking. Justin got up to hug her, and he did a cell phone rang from a distance.

Kitty was quickly on her feet to answer.

"It's mine."

"Guys, I'm going to take Rebecca upstairs." Justin had his arm around her as they started climbing the stairs.

Kitty entered the room. She spoke directly to Robert.

"We need to leave. The numbers of tomorrow's release came, and they're not good. We need to fix it before the morning." Robert got up to leave.

"Well, it's been… a strange night, to say the least. The food was great though, Nora."

Nora lifted her eyebrows and looked at the table. They had barley had time to start eating, all the food was just laying there, neatly portioned out on every plate.

"Scotty, I'm sorry, but I assure you, this whole family is going to do it's best to make this up to you."

"Forever." Kevin added to his mother's words.

Sarah got up. "Cooper! Paige! We're leaving!" Sarah went to fetch her ice cream eating children from the kitchen. She knew they had heard way too much, and she herself was not without blame. She knew she would have to explain a lot for them, and to Joe.

Sarah jerked when she thought of Joe. Explaining to him why their children knew this much would be worse than this whole situation.

Left in the dining room was Nora, Scotty and Kevin. Shortly after Sarah left, Cooper and Paige came in to give their uncle Scotty a birthday hug.

When they heard the door close behind them, Nora covered her head in her hands.

Kevin got up to give her a hug from behind.

"I love you mom. Do you want me to stay here over night?"

"No." Nora sat up straight. "You go. Have a glass of wine and open presents. You deserve that."

Scotty received the tightest hug he had even gotten when saying goodbye to his mother-in-law.

Moments later Nora was sitting on the short side of the table, all alone, with traces of her family scattered all around her.


	5. Chapter 5 NoraHolly

Nora was jerked out of her monotonous work with the dishes when the door bell rang. She has been cleaning up yesterday's disastrous dinner… not birthday party for hours. How they had all gathered for Scotty when Sarah had announced to everyone that Holly and Tommy had slept together, forcing Holly to leave the house in a hurry, followed by, of course, Julia.

Nora had been repeating the night over and over for hours, while doing the dishes by hand. She had always found it to be therapeutic to do the dishes after their family dinners.

She was expecting someone wanting to sell encyclopedias when she opened the door, and was quite surprised that is was Holly.

"Nora. Hi. I'm really sorry, about everything. Can we talk?"

Nora opened the door to let Holly in and walked into the kitchen, still quiet.

"I hope you believe me when I say it was a mistake, and that we both regret it so much." Holly spoke slowly, emphasizing every word to give them strength. "I already spoke with Sarah. We are going to change some tasks at the company to make this work. She and I really want to keep Ojai and Walker landing out of this."

For the first time Nora looked directly at Holly. "I though I had experienced the biggest betrayal when I found out about you and William. Right then and there I lost a part of him that I will never retrieve. But I'm over that."

Nora walked over to her dishes, her back facing Holly.

"Don't think I don't know what impact you had on my husband. You made him happy, I know that. When we all found out it didn't just crush me, all our children suffered from it too. Learning that their father was…" Nora stopped talking for a couple of seconds. "You made him happy, I'm know." She turned around to face Holly again. "But this." Nora didn't finish the sentence, letting the tension linger in the air.

For a while they stood there, looking at each other.

"I'm really sorry." Holly almost whispered the words before taking her bag, leaving the house.

_TBC: I will do these little short(er) stories with different people in them, instead of a big one with everyone in it. :)_


	6. Chapter 6 KevinScotty

The second the door to Nora's house shut behind them Kevin and Scotty hugged tight. Kevin hugged Scotty to apologize for his family's behaviour at his husband's birthday, and Scotty hugged Kevin to comfort him after have been let down by his brother. Scotty knew exactly how much it meant to Kevin that he helped Tommy start a family, regardless of whose sperm it was that got Julia pregnant. However, neither of them knew the other's intentions with the hug, and for a minute they just stood there.

When they let go they walked over to Kevin's car, without a sound. It was first after a couple of minutes of driving that Kevin spoke.

"What is going to happen now?" He sounded like he'd already given up, keeping his eyes on the road.

"I don't know. Maybe they can work it out. Maybe Holly, Tommy and Sarah don't need to work physically together as much anymore."

"I don't mean that." Kevin's eyes were still firmly on the road. "Julia and Lizzie. It was one thing that he slept with Lena, they were far away from each other and having a crisis."

Scotty put his hand on Kevin's thigh, caressing it briefly.

"How am I gonna deal with the fact that I don't want to see the face of my brother."

"Kevin." Scotty removed his hand. "I'm sorry to say this, but this isn't up to you. If Julia never wants to see his face again, than okay. But you have to love him, he's your brother."

Kevin opened his mouth, as if to start talking.

"Let me finish. You don't know why he did this, and you need to hear him out. At least you can do that, right?"

Kevin looked at Scotty for a second. He looked sad and didn't reply.

The rest of the car ride was quiet. They parked in the spot reserved for Kevin's car and carried Scotty's presents to their apartment.

"I wonder what Sarah got you. She's good at picking out gifts." Kevin says while placing a bag of gifts on the couch.

"I'm more interested to see what you gave me." Scotty says with a smirk and puts his arms around Kevin's waist.

"You'll get it first thing Monday. I have to pick it up." Kevin says with a mischievous grin. The smile fades quick though. "I'm sorry. In the car. I'm not mad at you, you know that. I will hear Tommy out. I promise." Kevin leans in to kiss Scotty who pulls away.

"Now where is that gift from Sara?" He says and walks over to the bag.

"You tease…" Kevin mutters under his breath.

Shortly Scotty waved a small box wrapped in multi-coloured shiny wrapping paper with a big golden bow on top. "Your sister knows me so well, doesn't she?" Scotty opens the gift.

When he sees what's in it he laughs out loud. Kevin walks over and looks down into the box. He smiles widely.

"I guess she knows us both well. And let me just say how glad I am that my dear brother slept with my late father's mistress. Had he not you had opened this in front of my whole family." Kevin says and picks up the small bottle of strawberry flavoured massage oil-and-lube.


	7. Chapter 7 KevinTommy

Kevin walks into his parental home. It's been a week since the last dinner from hell, and he hasn't been here since. Neither has he met any of his family members. It's early afternoon, but he's suspecting someone to be there. He walks into the kitchen to get something to drink, and finds Tommy by the dinner table, obviously working.

"Hi Tommy." Kevin greets as he sits down next to his brother.

"Hi Kev."

Kevin can tell that Tommy hasn't slept well recently and he's lost a lot of weight, just these past days.

"How mad are you?"

"Not as much as I should be." Tommy seems to pleased with the answer. Kevin continues. "I'm mostly mad because you trashed Scotty's birthday dinner while telling, it's not my place to judge when it comes to… Holly."

"Julia left."

"I know."

Tommy puts down the pen he's been holding and leans back in the chair.

"I don't know where she is, and she won't return my calls. I don't blame her, but we still need to talk."

"You don't know… where she is?" Kevin asks hesitantly.

"Do you?"

Kevin is quite for a few seconds, as if he's weighing if he should spill or not.

"I spoke with mom yesterday. She's been staying here, Tommy." Kevin's face is full of sympathy as he spills the news.

"Here?" Tommy's word is hollow and his gaze wanders out into thin air.

"It's not that weird is it?" Kevin's voice is all of a sudden straight and secure. "Here she can hang out with mom, she's literally gone through the same thing.

Tommy seems to be hit in the head every time Holly is somehow mentioned, and Kevin sees it as a good sign.

"How's Rebecca?" Tommy then silently asks.

"I don't know. I suppose Justin is taking care of her."

"He hasn't talked to me either. Seems like the only one handling this is mom."

"Well, she has experience." Kevin immediately notices his mistake. "Sorry."

"Don't be. I screwed up. Majorly. I would do anything to go back in time and undo it, but I can't. All I can do it try to fix things the way they are, and people won't let me."

"We need time." Kevin catches Tommy's gaze. "We're family, we'll be alright."

Tommy exhales heavily. "I hope you're right. So how much does Scotty hate me?"

Kevin chuckles lightly.

"Just the right amount." With a smile Kevin continues. "I think he's already forgiven you for wrecking the party," Kevin suddenly remembers the massage oil from Sarah. "don't worry about it."

Kevin stands up. "I have to go." He puts a supportive hand on his brother's back. Tommy stands up and hugs his brother, almost desperately. Kevin tightens the embrace and pats Tommy on the back.

When they part Kevin waves his car keys and nods a goodbye. His heart lights up when he sees a small smile on Tommy's face as he leaves the room.


End file.
